I saw this Painted Lady Butterfly and bee feeding on Tree Heliotrope flowers. Mostly, the various insects at work seem to accommodate each other, but I’ve seen occasional flurries of activities when one insects behavior disturbs the others. These two were very harmonious.
Leave one large unripe mango on the ground and wait for the arrival of seven small piglets. Watch them bat the mango around, trying to snare it in their small jaws. There are no rules in this game, so pushing and shoving is common, as is running around for no clear reason.
The winner is the one who snags and keeps the mango.
It’s a strenuous activity so a post-game rest is advised.
A bee flies towards a Japanese Aloe flower and then lands to gather the good stuff within.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Earth Day.’ See more responses here.
What’s more earthy than pigs. Of course, these piglets aren’t really back. The last litter is now much larger and correspondingly less cute. The ones in this photo are the latest batch. There are seven of them and they’re still in the ‘Everything is new and exciting’ phase. They root around in the dirt with such vigor that their back ends sometimes fly into the air. However, they haven’t yet learned that, while they’re doing this, they need to retain awareness of their surroundings. When something or someone, such as myself, can approach within five feet without them noticing, that might not end well. If mom’s around, she’ll warn them. If not, they’re easy to surprise.
In these photos, the piglets found something in the base of the palm and were clambering over each other to get a piece of it. I could have tapped one on the shoulder and it would probably have ignored me!
Then dad came along.
Time to head for the cane grass.
Wait for me!
I found this grasshopper (Schistocerca nitens) sunning itself on a blue table top. It didn’t move, but kept a careful eye on me. A short while later, it was gone.
I caught this Green Hover Fly doing what it does best, which is hover. It kept coming back to the same area, hovering for reasons that weren’t immediately apparent, but I wasn’t complaining. I’m a big fan of creatures that remain in place when I’m trying to take photos. Are you paying attention dragonflies?
When I was taking photos of this butterfly, I was pretty sure it was a Monarch, but it didn’t look right. Monarch’s are a striking orange and black. This one looked washed out in comparison. It wasn’t until I got home and consulted my butterfly book that I learned a white morph exists on Oahu and the Big Island and this was undoubtedly one of those. There’s also a brown morph on Kaua’i.
Kamani is a canoe plant, brought to Hawaii by early Polynesian settlers, though it grows naturally across most of the Pacific islands. Its common name is Alexandrian Laurel (Calophyllum inophyllum).
The wood of the tree was used for canoe building, homes, containers, and food bowls, and the fragrant flowers are popular with bees.
Graham's Island 